Said Bradley, “One thing I heard him say to Kelly (Olynyk) and (Jared) Sullinger. He yelled at them on the bench (suring Wednesday’s preseason loss to the New York Knicks), ‘Don’t ever pass up an open 3.’ He wants us to take open, smart shots."

If the Boston Celtics coach did, he would be imploring even his big men to release 3-pointers whenever they see a good look. The Celtics have ended multiple practices with a shooting drill that features everyone on the team – from centers down to point guards – taking shots from beyond the arc. While Stevens cautioned not to read too far into the habit (“once you say you can shoot 2s, guys just shoot 8-footers,” he said), twelve-year veteran Gerald Wallace said he hasn’t seen all-inclusive 3-point drills since his rookie year with the Sacramento Kings.

Regardless of whether the drill actually means anything of importance, Stevens wants to take advantage of his skilled big men. Even Sullinger, who attempted only five triples during his rookie season, has his coach’s confidence. The power forward, who hit 16 of 40 attempts from the shorter college 3-point arc during his sophomore season at Ohio State, missed two last night from above the break. But the bigger surprise was that he took them.

“I just have to let it fly, just let the flow of the ball come off my fingers and shoot the ball. I’m just thinking, feeling like somebody’s looking over my shoulder. I just have to shoot it,” said Sullinger.

He added, “It’s a big difference (from Doc Rivers). I have it, I just have to shoot it. Right now I’m kind of babying it, I just have to let it fly. You just have to let it go. If you’re open shoot the ball. Just make sure it’s a great shot. As long as it’s not a bad shot, he lets you shoot it.”

One gets the feeling Stevens might have spent time trying to change Kevin Garnett, who routinely took shots a step or two in front of the arc.

“We’re certainly not frowning on the 2-point shot. You’d prefer to get those after ball reversal,” said the coach. “But if you can choose between a 20-footer and a 3-pointer, it makes sense to shoot the 3-pointer.”

Added Bradley, “It’s one of our strengths. We have stretch 4s (power forwards) and 5s (centers) that shoot the ball pretty well. I think we’re going to shoot a lot of 3s this year.”

“He’s a better shooter than he’s shooting it, and he can score it on the block better than he’s played on the block. He has to be more efficient, and we have to help him with that,” said Stevens. “But he’s done a really good job. I’ve probably been more impressed with him on the other end of the court. He’s calling out our defensive schemes pretty well. In fact, at times I think he’s our most vocal big. He’s doing a really good job for a guy that’s never guarded the way we’re asking him to guard.”

For a guy who doesn’t speak fluent English, the communication part’s a good sign.

Jordan Crawford back at practice

Crawford, who missed Wednesday night’s game because of a death in his family, returned to the Celtics and participated in Thursday’s practice. Stevens said the guard will play Friday night against Philadelphia.

D-Fence not strong

The Celtics have allowed 52 percent shooting in both of their preseason games, so naturally Stevens wanted more work on that side of the ball.

Said Bradley, "We made progress today. We want to play hard, we want to be aggressive. That’s how I play defense, that’s how Gerald (Wallace) plays defense. We want everybody to play defense like that. That's what we tried to do today."

“I think our defense is getting better," added Wallace. "It’s going to take time. First game, we had a lot of mistakes, defensively. We didn’t box out, we didn’t rebound – we have to understand that our guards have to help our bigs out. I think in the second game we did a pretty good job of helping defensively, we did a great job of boxing out and communicating on defense. We just need to get rid of the sluggish starts to the 3rd quarter. We got them going, they made some shots and got into a rhythm, and we kind of got stagnant offensively.”

Film check

Asked what he saw on film after the 103-102 Knicks loss, Stevens pointed first to his team’s cohesion.

“We’re really together," he said. "We really cheer for one another, we really pull for one another, we really share the ball. We’re doing all the team stuff, which is really good because that’s how we’re made up. We have to be a great team.

"The second thing is, the comeback was great because it showed that togetherness, but it also showed a kind of possession-by-possession mentality. There were a lot of things though that weren’t so good and we’ll get to that. I thought we worked on those (Thursday), and (Friday’s matchup with the Philadelphia 76ers) is another great test to see how we play against a different style than New York, and against a team that’s already played a couple of games and played really well overseas.”

I’d like to think that by “a different style than New York,” Stevens meant “the Sixers are actively trying to lose and we’d really like to get a win this time, thank you very much.” But he would never say something like that. Plus, the Celtics realize preseason wins and losses don’t matter.

“We can go oh-fer the preseason, we just want to get better as a team and really amp this thing up in the regular season,” said Wallace.

Zing

Wallace, a Red Sox fan, said it doesn't matter who the team plays in the ALCS.

"But we'll take Oakland because they just find a way to lose," he laughed.